Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

History

Toyota announced its return to the World Rally Championship in January 2015, having last competed in 1999. Development of the Yaris WRC initially fell to Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG), which had run Toyota's earlier WRC campaigns. In July 2015, Toyota President Akio Toyoda reassigned the project to Tommi Mäkinen, who based the team in Finland; only the engine remained with TMG. New World Rally Car regulations for 2017 forced Mäkinen to abandon the existing prototype and start fresh.

That same year, Toyota consolidated all motorsport activities under the Toyota Gazoo Racing banner, and TMG was renamed Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe. The team returned to the WRC in 2017 after an eighteen-year absence. Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila joined from Volkswagen, alongside Juho Hänninen and Kaj Lindström, while Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm contested a partial campaign. The first podium came at Monte Carlo, and the first win at Rally Sweden.

Lappi took his first WRC win in Finland, where Hänninen also scored his first podium. The team finished third in the manufacturers' championship. For 2018, Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja replaced Hänninen and Lindström, who moved to test driver and sporting director roles respectively. In August, the team relocated its service base to a facility in Estonia, 8 km from Tallinn, while headquarters and development remained in Finland.

Driver development program

The TGR WRC Challenge Program was established in 2015 to identify and nurture young Japanese drivers for the WRC. The first participants were Hiroki Arai and Takamoto Katsuta, with co-driver Sayaka Adachi added in 2017. A second generation joined in 2022, including Hikaru Kogure, Nao Otake, and Yuki Yamamoto.

The third generation began in 2024 with Shotaro Goto and Takumi Matsushita. The program is run from Jyväskylä, with trainers including Jouni Ampuja, Mikko Hirvonen, and Juho Hänninen. Takamoto Katsuta is the program's only graduate and currently drives for Toyota's manufacturer team.